The environmental protection expenditure for industry, in 2010, is 1,925 million euros, of which 1,440 million euros are investments in equipment and plant for pollution control and special anti-pollution accessories mainly end-of-pipe equipment and 485 million euros are investments in equipment and plant linked to cleaner technologies (“integrated technology”). The large enterprises with 250 and more persons employed accounted for 84.5 percent of end-of-pipe investments and 73.2 percent of investments linked to cleaner technology.
Between 2009 and 2010, the investments on environmental protection of industrial enterprises decreased by 7.2 percent.
The investments on environmental protection accounted for 4.7 percent of the total gross fixed investments made by industrial enterprises; the environmental investments per persons employed are instead equal to 463 euro.
39.8 percent of the environmental protection expenditure (38.6 percent in 2009) includes protection and remediation of soil, groundwater and surface water, noise and vibration abatement, protection of biodiversity and landscape, protection against radiation, research and development, activities leading to indivisible expenditure and activities not elsewhere classified (Other environmental protection activities).
In particular, in manufacturing, the weight of environmental investments to total gross fixed investments is 2.0 percent. The biggest expense is made by industry in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products resulting from (20.0%) the manufacturing industries of chemical products (12.9%) and manufacture of basic metals (10.9%).
Overall, industrial companies produce mainly investments to remove the pollution after it has been produced, instead of integrating their systems with “clean” technologies, which help to protect the environment from the effects of the production process.
Contact person:
ISTAT – Italian National Institute of Statistics
Via Tuscolana, 1782 – 00173 Roma
Roberto Nardecchia
ph +39 06.46736180